This is the second book recording the pilgrimages of Phra Mana Viriyarampo, tracing the footsteps of the Buddha and the early history of Buddhism.

The first book, A Buddhist Pilgrimage to Northern India, concerned travel in India in February 2007 to places central to the life of the Buddha, including the four pilgrimage sites nominated by the Buddha, other significant Buddhist sites from later times, such as the Great Stupa at Sanchi and the caves of Ajanta and Ellora, and several museums which displayed Buddhist art and early coins.

This second book concerns travel in Egypt, Greece and India in February and March 2008, examining contacts of Buddhism with the Mediterranean world and two of the great powers of the early Buddhist era, Pharaonic Egypt and Hellenist Greece. These contacts were greatly facilitated and enhanced by the arrival of the armies of Alexander the Great on the north western boarders of India in 327 BCE, which opened up the trade routes to allow unprecedented freedom, safety and ease of movement of goods and people between India and the Mediterranean.

So far as practical, I have attempted to avoid repeating in this second book material contained in the first book. However a certain amount of repetition is unavoidable, particularly in regard to Alexander, Ashoka and Gandharan Buddhist art.

PILGRIMAGE SITES

The Buddha nominated four sites that would be appropriate destinations for those who wished to undertake pilgrimages. Those sites were :-

Lumbini, in present day southern Nepal, where he was born;

Uruvela, present day Bodh Gaya, where he attained enlightenment;

Sarnath, where he delivered his first discourse after his enlightenment; and

Kushinagar, where he died.

The events which took place at those sites were at first represented symbolically, as depicted on page 13, and later featuring the Buddha image, as depicted on page 15.

THE BUDDHA IMAGE

For many years, there was considerable debate amongst historians as to when and where the Buddha image first appeared, with a time frame mooted at around the beginning of the common era, and the location as between Gandhara and Mathura, although the weight of evidence favoured Gandhara.